Goodguys 15th Southwest Nationals – Wild, Wild, WestWorld

While the rest of the country begins to batten down the hatches for the winter and stow their cars away from the punishing weather, the hot rodders in the Phoenix area are just beginning to hit their stride. You have to keep in mind that they have been trying to stay out of the triple-digit heat for the last six months, and by the time the middle of November rolls around, it’s just getting seasonably cool—like mid 70s. It’s for this reason that the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association schedules bookend events in the Phoenix area in both early March and mid November. If you’re a hot rodder living in the Midwest, Northwest, or East Coast, both of these events—which are held at WestWorld of Scottsdale, are a great gearhead vacation destination at those times of the year. And while we usually fly to the Goodguys events we attend, Scottsdale is one we always plan as a road trip—it’s a really beautiful journey from any direction.

The great road trip aside, we were there to cover the last of the five PHR-sponsored Street Machine Autocross events for 2012. Some background: Goodguys holds its autocross at most of its events, space permitting. These autocross courses have typical lap times ranging anywhere between 30 seconds and a minute in length, and rarely do speeds exceed 30 mph. The thing we dig the most is that any car in the joint can pull up and run laps for free. All you gotta do is let Goodguys check your ride for safety, and sign a waiver. The course is usually a pretty simple affair; tight turns and sweepers with the car in Second gear are the norm. Drivers stage just like the dragstrip, and cars run one at a time. A one-second penalty is incurred for each cone that’s knocked over, so drivers are rewarded with precise, deliberate driving. That’s not to say there aren’t some spectacular displays of reckless abandon! It’s all good though. Everybody has a great time whether they’re driving or spectating; vehicle damage is rare, and usually limited to rubber cone marks on the door.

The Goodguys autocross is broken down into a couple of classes, the largest of which is the Street Machine class. This is for ’55-72 model year cars of all persuasions—front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, domestic, import, it doesn’t matter. At the five PHR-sponsored Goodguys events, this is the class we focus on most. There are also classes for trucks (pre-’72), street rods (pre-’55), and there’s a Pro class, made up of previous Street Machine winners and Goodguys vendors. During Sunday’s activities, Goodguys also opens the entire place up to late-model cars and trucks, and these folks get their own Super Sunday class. Got something that doesn’t fit handily into any of these classes? There’s a catchall “Fun Run” class with no trophy; it’s for guys who might not qualify for one of the other classes. In the past, we’ve run our Chevy Laguna in this class because it had tires that were stickier than the 200 UTQG treadwear minimum.

For the 15th Southwest Nationals, the PHR Street Machine class was once again the largest, and its 42 competing machines were dominated by Chevys. (Six of the ten fastest cars were Camaros, and there were 23 Chevys in all.) Ford stood tall with 10 cars making laps (five of which were Mustangs), while the Mopar camp managed a token showing with two cars. (Thanks go to Dan Weishaar and Mark LaCasse, who single-handedly saved the Chrysler camp from a complete epic fail.)

The big news in Scottsdale is that we had a severely handicapped underdog come from behind for the win. It’s the first time we can recall this happening in the Street Machine competition, and our hats are off to Rodney Prouty of San Mateo, California, for pulling off the upset with his rather modest ’68 Camaro. It proves that skills—and a little bit of luck—can win out over cubic dollars.

This wraps up our coverage for the 2012 PHR Street Machine autocross circuit, but we will be back for 2013 for five select events. If you’ve got a Pro Touring muscle machine—or even a mostly stock muscle car—and this looks interesting to you, we would love to have you. We see a lot of guys out on the autocross who just want to stick their toes in the water to try it out, so there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Bring it out and see how it stacks up against the rest!

Terry Work makes a mad dash through the Street Machine Autocross finish line with his ’65 Mustang fastback.

Jim Demetrus’ ’67 Chevelle wagon shows that anyone can get into the autocross game. We dig the “time bomb” license plate. Tell us if you know the answer to this: Why is it that Chevy guys try it more than any other group?

Joe Witte did most of the work on his ’68 Camaro convertible, which sports a 383ci small-block, and a Gearstar 200-4R automatic. The rest is mostly stock. Good driving and good tires put him better than mid-pack.

Heath Elmer Restorations of Gilbert, Arizona, is responsible for minting this awesome ’70 Camaro for Marty Ceccarelli. The 427ci EFI small-block, six-speed second-gen was 15th fastest in the field.

You all know this ’70 Challenger as the Hotchkis E-Body suspension test vehicle, which was piloted by Dan Wieshaar this weekend. Running gear includes a built 340ci small-block with a six-pack, mated to a Tremec TKO-600.

This completely stock restored ’70 Boss 302 Mustang is owned by Jim Beatty. We give him big props for using it in exactly the fashion it was intended rather than parking it in his living room with a velvet rope around it.

Chevelles are prolific at many of the Goodguys autocrosses we attend, and this stock-looking ’71 Chevelle has been upgraded with YearOne 17×9 Rallys and 275/40R17s. Owner Russell Pierce did most of the work on it, updating the mostly stock A-body with an LS3 crate motor.

Detroit Speed & Engineering makes some of the sweetest mail-order parts around, but they also build cars too. Paul Alderman’s DSE-built ’70 Camaro is a work of art that goes well beyond the DSE hydroformed frontend and QuadraLink rear suspension. If it looks familiar that’s because it was on the cover of the Jan. ’13 issue of Chevy High Performance.

John Dwyer’s ’69 Mustang was arguably the nicest car in the joint. A 2012 Muscle Machine of the Year finalist, this pony features a 622hp Roush-built small-block, Tremec six-speed, and an almost completely handbuilt suspension and chassis. We are working to get it into the photo studio—stay tuned!

As the winner of the Scottsdale Street Machine Autocross, there’s no reason Rodney Prouty’s homebuilt ’68 Camaro shouldn’t be chock-full of high-end suspension pieces—but it’s not. The 6.0L LS and Super T10 trans are aided only by Hotchkis bolt-ons, 17-inch Coys wheels, and the stickiest rubber allowed by the rules.

Popular Hot Rodding Street Machine Autocross

Rodney Prouty

’69 Chevy Camaro

32.391

Jeff Schwarz

’65 Pontiac Tempest

32.612

Dan Wieshaar

’70 Dodge Challenger

33.068

Karen Leisinger

’70 Chevy Camaro

33.215

Mark Allen

’67 Chevy Camaro

33.223

Tom Foglesong

’67 Chevy Camaro

33.299

Tim Ault

’67 Chevy Camaro

33.637

Chris Hall

’68 Pontiac Firebird

33.777

Bob Gawlik

’72 Chevy Camaro

33.912

Wayne Hendricks

’69 AC Cobra

34.223

John Dwyer

’69 Ford Mustang

34.439

Bill Devine

’66 AC Cobra

35.053

Nick Hall

’70 Chevy Nova

35.100

Mike Thomas

’63 Chevy Nova

35.247

Marty Ceccarelli

’70 Chevy Camaro

35.383

Gavin Hall

’59 Austin Healey

35.486

Russell Pierce

’71 Chevy Chevelle

35.702

Si Roosa

’67 Mercedes

35.881

Joe Witte

’68 Chevy Camaro

36.145

Mark Allen

’72 Chevy Camaro

36.709

Bob Hall

’65 Chevy Chevelle

36.963

Jim Beatty

’70 Ford Boss

36.981

Randy Karella

’66 Chevy Chevelle

37.093

Jason Stucki

’72 Chevy Chevelle

37.191

Gary Meshew

’66 Chevy Corvette

37.345

Carl Townson

’71 Chevy Nova

37.560

Matt Bauer

’55 Ford T-Bird

37.586

Eric Hankins

’66 Pontiac LeMans

37.958

Chase Harris

’66 Ford Mustang

37.964

Terry Work

’65 Ford Mustang

37.980

Bryon Pryde

’69 Chevy Chevelle

38.488

Mark LaCasse

’66 Dodge Dart wagon

39.988

Vince Vaccardo

’65 Ford Mustang

40.362

Tom Hull

’64 Ford Galaxie

40.775

Larry Boughter

’62 Chevy II Nova

40.952

Dean Newman

’60 Chevy Biscayne

42.260

Bradley Wesighan

’71 Ford Galaxie

45.617

Jim Demetrus

’67 Chevelle wagon

45.748

Tigh Nuazez

’60 Cadillac

47.393

Chad Borman

’69 Chevy Chevelle

48.960

Willie Taitano

’61 Cadillac

38.432

Mike Nichols

’67 Chevy Malibu

40.831

The Hall Effect

Meet Chris and Nick Hall. They’re two brothers living in the Phoenix area who hail from England. Chris has owned this 400ci ’68 Firebird for 17 years; it was built in Belgium and imported to the United States when he immigrated. Nick has the LS2-powered Ruby Red ’70 Nova, which he picked up as an unfinished project about a year and a half ago. We met the Hall brothers on Facebook when we posted about our impending trip to Scottsdale. It was fun meeting these avid PHR readers face-to-face after meeting them online! Chris’ imported Poncho ended up being Eighth overall, while Nick’s Nova was 13th. Both are really sweet street machines.

Come Out And Join Us!

The fun continues into 2013 as Popular Hot Rodding will once again be covering the Street Machine Autocross action at selected events on the Goodguys circuit. If you like what you see and want to be a part of the action, circle these dates on your calendar and go to the Goodguys site to register today. We always go out of our way to include PHR readers in our print and online coverage, so if you make the trip, please come up and say hello—you never know, you could end up right here in PHR!